The company that chartered the cargo ship that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was recently sanctioned by regulators for blocking its employees from directly reporting safety concerns to the U.S. Coast Guard — in violation of a seaman whistleblower protection law, according to regulatory filings reviewed by The Lever.

Eight months before a Maersk Line Limited-chartered cargo ship crashed into the Baltimore bridge, likely killing six people and injuring others, the Labor Department sanctioned the shipping conglomerate for retaliating against an employee who reported unsafe working conditions aboard a Maersk-operated boat. In its order, the department found that Maersk had “a policy that requires employees to first report their concerns to [Maersk]… prior to reporting it to the [Coast Guard] or other authorities.”

  • protist@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    Wow, how dense to read these words and think “Biden isn’t going to hold Maersk accountable.” He’s telling the people and governments of Baltimore and Maryland that the federal government is going to back them up so they don’t have to rebuild on their own. How can you seriously read those words and think “Well I guess they’re not going to hold Maersk accountable?” Any investigation into what happened is going to take time, but the bridge needs to be rebuilt ASAP. Money the government spends on this will be recouped later through insurance settlements, fines, and/or lawsuits

      • 24_at_the_withers@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        8 months ago

        Maybe not if it were an American company on the brink of collapse, but Maersk is a Danish company - and an exceptionally wealthy/profitable one at that. The cities, governments, and companies that are all affected by this will be eager to collect their pound of flesh from Maersk.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        8 months ago

        The amount of money this company just cost the US economy is why they are going to hold whatever company is ultimately found to be at fault accountable.

        In this case one company just brought shipping from one of the largest ports on the eastern seaboard to a complete halt. If maersk is at fault they will have hefty fines to pay. But we don’t know the ultimate cause of the ship losing power yet.

        The money being lost is more important than corporate privilege.

          • MB420GFY@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            8 months ago

            oh, i see. you’re one of those lurkers whose sole purpose is to shit talk about democrats. are you working from a propaganda farm, or do you do this for fun in your spare time?

            if you’ll look back, it was actually bush that was in office when the '08 crash started and he said he wasn’t going to do shit. obama just toed the line after him, you disingenuous fuck.

            don’t come back with your both sides BS either. or do. i’ll school you on that line of reasoning too.